Redeeming Her SEAL (ASSIGNMENT Caribbean Nights #9) - Kat Cantrell Page 0,1
and flipped too-long strands of hair out of his face with a practiced gesture that he must think women went gaga over but really made him look like a cockatiel having a seizure.
Charlie refrained from pointing out that he was only ten years older than the kid he’d personally hauled out of more Iraqi hellholes than the month had days and nodded at Jace’s watered-down light beer, a typical choice for a kid with no idea what tasted good and a limited budget. “At least I don’t need alcoholic enhancement to be charming.”
Everyone chortled as Miles punched Jace in the arm with a snicker.
Guilt usually kept Charlie from drinking in front of Evan, who was a recovering alcoholic, and some days he wished the rest of the team would take a lesson. Evan was a good sport about it though.
“If all of you are through flapping your gums…” Charlie dropped into his own splintered wooden chair and nodded at Rachel. “You have news?”
“I do,” she said and pushed her horn-rimmed glasses up higher on the bridge of her nose. “Dr. Reed, Anderson’s dolphin expert, has filed her report.”
Everyone froze, and instantly silence fell. That was a major feat Charlie would like to replicate on occasion as he’d picked this team for their specific skill sets, none of which was the ability to keep their traps shut. The six of them were co-owners, but this excursion company was Charlie’s dream, which made it his responsibility to make sure his guys weren’t sorry he’d brought them along for the ride.
“You didn’t tell me,” Evan murmured.
“Seems like I had something better to do with my mouth,” Rachel countered pertly. “You can thank me later.”
Evan laughed, which Charlie could not hear often enough. Rachel Blume had given Evan his voice back, and Charlie owed her more than he could ever repay, and not just because she was acting as Aqueous Adventures’ stand-in lawyer. She’d cleaned up the mess inside Evan’s head, clearing out the worst of his lingering PTSD symptoms courtesy of a roadside bombing that had riddled his body with shrapnel.
Symptoms he’d been forced to face because of Charlie.
He shoved the guilt and the chaos inside that he’d carted home from Iraq back into the black box where he kept that kind of unpleasantness. Some days it was harder than others. “Tell us what the report says, Rachel.”
Might as well get the bad news over with so they could start figuring out how to counter the expert opinion that would allow Jared Anderson to buy the island Aqueous used as a snorkeling destination. If he was successful, half of their revenue would dry up. Permanently.
When the team had first landed in the Caribbean, they’d accepted jobs working for ReefCo, one of Jared Anderson’s ventures, doing restoration to the coral reef off the coast of Countess Cay. It paid for boats and gear as they learned the waters around Duchess Island Resort where they’d opened a parasailing and snorkeling excursion company to cater to the guests.
Little did Charlie know that Jared Anderson and Dr. Audra Reed had become an item in his absence.
Charlie still couldn’t figure out if he was more shocked, pissed, or broken by the news. Some days, it was all three at once, even a year later. Yeah, he’d been the one to end things. They’d said no promises, and she deserved better than a man who couldn’t even sleep through the night.
Cutting her loose had been the right thing to do. Instead of spilling out all the things in his heart and begging her to wait for him, to be there when he came home, he’d sent her a crappy text message with five words: We’re not going to happen. He couldn’t drag her down, couldn’t be the man she’d met two years ago on this very island, thanks to the IED that had ripped his team apart.
Sure, she’d had every right to go out with someone else. He’d hoped she’d find a great guy who could make her happy. But Jared Anderson?
He’d swallowed the bitter taste of betrayal and thrown himself into building Aqueous Adventures, avoiding both Jared and Audra expertly… until Anderson had declared war on Charlie for God knew what reason, forcing the team to quit doing coral restoration for ReefCo as a way to strike back. Charlie never would have set all of this up if he’d known he was dropping his team into a minefield of agendas he scarcely understood.